Cabinet with disappearing ironing board



April 10, 1951 J. MANTAGAS CABINET WITH DISAPPEARING IRONING BOARD Filed Oct. 11, 1948 INVENTOR, wfirhn Manta as ATTORNEY Patented Apr. 10, 1951 CABINET WITH DISAPPEARING IRONING BOARD I I John Mantagas, Brooklyn, N. Y. Application October 11, 1948, Serial No. 53,829

1 Claim. (Cl. 38104) 1 My invention relates to improvements in utility cabinets'wherein linen and/or other household articles are stored and which cabinets are also equipped with a disappearing ironing board and the salient objects of my invention are: firstly, to provide a utility cabinet provided with an ironing board which can be made to disappear completely from view when not in use and which can be easily and readily brought out for use with the least possible effort, trouble or inconvenience; secondly, to provide said cabinet with a disappearing ironing board which, when brought out for use, can be turned or swung and used at angles lesser than and/or greater than 90 relative to the face of the cabinet; and thirdly, to provide a well and stoutly constructed cabinet with a disappearing ironing board which cabinet will also be beautiful and neat in appearance as well as extremely useful in any home however modern or fastidious.

I attain these and other objects in the manner described in this specification and illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which- Fig. 1 is a perspective view of my cabinet, showing the ironin board out at right angles with the face of the cabinet and ready to be turned or swung in either position indicated by the dotted lines and arrows;

Fig. 2 is a bottom view of the ironing board, detached from the cabinet and showing the parts and elements required to be attached to said ironing board for its operation;

Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view of the cabinet showing the ironing board folded in the compartment provided for its hide-away;

Fig. 4 is a downwardly looking horizontal sectional view, taken on id, showing a place for keeping the iron when not in use.

Referring now more specifically to the various elements of the invention shown in the drawing wherein similar numerals refer to similar parts throughout the several views:

The cabinet, as shown at Fig. 1, has a top surface I, sides 2, compartments 3 on each side which may be finished ofi either with drawers, or with doors, or one compartment may be finished with conventional drawers and the other with conventional door or doors, and the compartment finished with door or doors may or may not be provided with shelves, as the cabinet maker or the user may desire.

Thecabinet is further provided with a central compartment 4 which extends from the front to the back of the cabinet and opens upwardly through the top surface thereof. The backside of this centrally located compartment is closed simultaneously with the closing of the backsides of the compartments on each side of it by the back panel (not shown) of the cabinet, while the frontal portion of the central compartment which reaches to the top surface of the cabinet is provided with a closing panel 5 which may or may not be hinged to the side thereof for opening and closing the same. 7

The backside opening of the central compartment 4 is elongated upwardly by a rectangular hood 5 constructed to form the elongation of compartment for the purpose of housing the outer or upper end of the ironing board attachment to be described further on in this specification. The rectangular hood 5 is provided with sides I which provides the said hood with a small depth by extending forwardly a relatively short distance over the top surface l of the cabinet. These sides 7, which may be formed of pieces reaching all of the way to the bottom of compartment 4, or of pieces shorter than the com bined height of compartment 4 and hood 6, are provided with hinged doors 8 which, when closed, hide from View the elongated portion of the opening at the rear of compartment 4.

On the sides 9, of compartment 4, I provide grooved tracks it! which begin just inside of the front and just below the top edge of compartment 4, run parallel toward the rear ofthe said compartment, curve gently downwardly and continue to the bottom of compartment at a short distance from the back side thereof. The space between the top edge of the opening of compartment A and track it, and the space between track it and the backside of compartment t is substantially equal to the thickness of the ironing board attachment which is to be presently introduced and described in this specification.

At Fig. 2 I show a preferred form of my ironing board H which isespecially prepared and constructed to fit into and be used in combination with the hereinabove described cabinet by having a rectangularly shaped back or lower end l2 and a tapering rounded front or upper end 33. The back end I2 is provided on the underside thereof with a circular disc M concentrically pivoted thereto, with the perimeter of said disc being substantially flush with the side and back edges of the ironing board. Attached to the pivot pin i5, and directly underneath the disc I4, is a rectangular piece IS, the widthof which is equal to the width of the opening of compartment 4 across the top surface I of the cabinet. Underneath the rectangular piece Hi I provide bar ll fastened crosswise thereto with the length there of being substantially equal to the longest distance between the grooved parallel tracks I on the sides 9 of compartment 4. The ironing board H is further provided with a conventionally hinged leg I8 which is in turn provided with an adjustable contact point or supporting rod I9. This rod I9 is provided with longitudinal slots through which it is fastened to the leg "3 by means of bolts and nuts such as shown at and which rod can be drawn out to lengthen the leg, or shoved back to shorten it by the obvious manner of manipulating the said bolt and nut fasten-- ing means.

Bridging the opening of compartment 4, at a suitable distance below the points where the grooved tracks begin near the upper front sides of said compartment, is a shelf 26, on which are mounted brackets 21, supporting a rod or shaft 2|, at the middle of which is rotatively mounted a grooved or flanged reeling wheel 22, on which is wound a long, flat, ribbon steel spring 23, one end of which spring is fastened on the base or core of the wheel and the other end is fastened to the ironing board at l5,'when the said ironing board is inserted in its place in the cabinet.

Having prepared and constructed the parts and elements hereinabove described, I now take the ironing board I! and attach the same to the cabinet by inserting the back end I2 thereof into the opening at the top of compartment 4, with the ends of bar I? fitting and sliding into the grooved tracks [0, the rectangular piece l6 fitting between and sliding along the lips of the opening of compartment 4, and by fastening one end of the ribbon steel spring 23 to the core of grooved wheel 22, then winding the steel ribbon spring on the said wheel under tension and then fastening the other end of it to the pivot pin 15, I produce the ensemble combination shown at Fig. 1, wherein the ironing board drawn out of its hide-away compartment in the cabinet and, with its back end supported on the cabinet and its front end held up by the point or toe IS on leg l8, it is ready to be adjusted to either of the positions shown by the dotted lines and to be used where it will be least in the way of other household traific or activities.

When the use or function of the ironing board is finished and the board is not needed for the time being, the same is easily put away and out of sight by shoving it back on its tracks until it assumes the position shown at Fig. 3, whereupon the doors 8 are closed and the opening on the top of compartment 4 is covered by the leaf 25 which is hingedly connected to the edge of the top surface 1 of thecabinet.

For the hot iron, 28 there is provided a fireproof pocket where the same can be placed as shown at 25 (Fig. 4). The clean linen is stored in compartments 3, which, as hereinabove stated, may be finished in any conventional manner, and the cabinet is left without any objectionable or unsightly features.

When it is again necessary to use the ironing board, the doors 8 of the hood 6 are opened, the leaf 24 is lifted and laid back on the top surface of the cabinet, the upper end l3 of the ironing board is gently pulled outwardly toward the front and, aided with the tension of the spring, which now tends to wind on the reeling wheel, and by the guiding functions of the rectangular piece l6 sliding along the sides of compartment 4 and the rod l1 travelling on the grooved tracks H], the board is brought back to the desired operating position with the greatest of ease and convenience.

After having thus described the construction of my invention and the manner in which it operates, it is clear to anyone familiar with the household articles and work to which it appertains that I have produced a new and useful improvement in cabinets with disappearing ironing board.

I am aware that prior to my invention cabinets with ironing board attachments have been made. I therefore claim such a combination broadly; but what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

In combination with a compact, portable, selfsupported linen, ironing board and hot iron cabinet having a flat rectangular top connected to and supported above a similar bottom by panels forming the end and back enclosing sides thereof; a rectangular opening across said top,

partition walls from the longer opposite edges of said opening to said bottom setting off storage spaces between said top and bottom, a horizontal shelf bridging approximately six-tenths of the area between said partition walls from the front rearwardly thereof on a plane substantially below the brim of said opening, an open-front housing over approximately three-tenths of the area from the back frontwardy of said opening, a vertically elongated compartment extending from the roof of said housing through said opening to said bottom, said compartment being in open communication with the space above said shelf, parallel grooved tracks on opposing sides of said partition walls running rearwardly between the brim of said opening and said shelf and, for a short distance, parallel to said shelf, thence gently curving downwardly to the bottom of said elongated compartment, an ironing board having a vertically adjustable supporting leg hingedly connected thereto, a hinge-brace for said supporting leg hingedly connected to said leg and board, a number of superimposed blocks pivotally connected to the heel of said ironing board, an axle-shaped cross-bar secured across the underside of the lowermost of said blocks, the axle points of said cross-bar slidably mounted on said grooved tracks, a self-winding reel mounted onsaid shelf, a flat ribbon steel spring wound on said reel with one of its ends fastened to the axle of said reel and the other to the heel of said ironing board, said spring and reel developing tension when said board is pushed back to a vertical inoperative position within the said elongated compartment thereby exerting a forward pull when said board is being brought forth to a horizontal operative position, a fireproof receptacle beside said reel to receive a hot iron, a removable covering for said rectangular opening and doors for said housing for completely hiding said reel, iron and ironing board from view when said board is in a vertical inoperative position within said elongated compartment.

JOHN MAN TAGAS.

REFERENCES one! The following references are of record in th file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,117,499 PolsOn May 17, 1938 

